The silver and GOLD PRICE had a punk day. Silver forked over 35.9 cents to close at 3294.1c while gold gave back $4.80 to $1,708.20.

Here, too, markets are holding their breath waiting for tomorrow. After rising from last Thursday, the GOLD PRICE peaked yesterday at $1,716.74 and traded sideways today between $1,714.30 and $1,705.45. That $1,705 support is still gold's line in the sand. Cross that and drop a long ways. Up above the barrier is $1,725. Cross that and rise a long piece.

The SILVER PRICE low today at 3275c looks feisty, but it's still holding breath. Silver is caught in a range like gold: must hold 3250c, must better 3340c. Meanwhile we wait.

Don't misread all this. You are watching the tail-end of a silver and gold correction. Whether by month end or next month, both will come roaring up out of this hole, launching skyward like an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile out of a Nebraska silo. If you have none, you'd better be buying some. If you have some, you'd better be planning to buy more.

Nasty US dollar index today lost a weighty 26.1 basis points (0.34%) to end at 80.067, barely hanging on above the morale bruising 80 level. Scabby dollar has spent its fuel, but is hovering today, awaiting news from tomorrow's meeting of the FOMC (Fiends Opposed to Monetary Character). I've given up on trying to figure out how markets will react to anything the Fed or its cancerous committees do. Whatever they do, other than shut and bolt the doors and go out of business, will HURT the dollar long term.

Tomorrow's question hinges on whether the Fed will continue "Operation Twist" whereby the Fed obstructs, hamstrings, hampers, hinders, hobble, and handcuffs the real economy by suppressing long term interest rates AND continuing to misdirect capital away from truly profitable and useful undertakings. Let me predict that in some transmogrification or other, they will, because the only other answer -- stop digging the hole deeper -- will never occur to their control-starved brains and Size 1 consciences. (Sizes 1 through 18 consciences fit ringworm fungus, the larger single-celled animalcules, some bacteria, cockroaches, mealy bugs, most worms, planaria, tapeworms and other internal parasites, all the way up to earwigs, ticks, chiggers, leeches, and lamprey eels. Most mammalian consciences are Size 80 or larger.)

Only question left in what passes for my brain is whether the Dow will drop like a poleaxed steer from 13,300 or race on up to pull in as many poor victims as possible. I hope y'all tie yourselves to the mast and refuse to harken to the Sirens' song.

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down.

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned:

Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures.

NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps.

NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced.

NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt.

What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands.

One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't.